Guest Commentary: Coming years will be 'decades of the brain'

5:44 PM,
Oct. 5, 2013

Darold Treffert

Written by

Dr. Darold Treffert

Given some of the nationwide tragic shootings - and mention of mental illness in some of those cases - much of the attention on Mental Illness Awareness Week will focus, rightly so, on the shortage of services for the seriously mentally ill.

It will also address the legal barriers to obtaining help for some obviously mentally ill persons before the "smoking gun" appears.

I have been involved for many years in legal reforms to balance in some reasonable way the "right to be sick" with the "right to be rescued." ...